 Chapter 7 of Washington and His Comrades and Arms by George Rong. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 7 Washington and His Comrades at Ballet Forge. Washington had met defeat in every considerable battle at which he was personally present. His first appearance in military history in the Ohio campaign against the French 22 years before the Revolution was marked by a defeat, the surrender of Fort Necessity. Again in the next year when he fought to relieve the disaster to Braddock's army, defeat was his portion. Defeat had pursued him in the battles of the Revolution before New York at the Brandywine at Germantown. The campaign against Canada which he himself planned had failed. He had lost New York and Philadelphia, but like William III of England, who in his long struggle with France hardly won a battle, and yet forced Louis XIV to accept his terms of peace, Washington by suddenness and reprisal, by skill and resource when his plans seemed to have been shattered, grew on the hard rock of defeat, the flower of victory. There was never a time when Washington was not trusted by men of real military insight or by the masses of the people, but a general who does not win victories in the field is open to attack. By the winter of 1777, when Washington with his army reduced and needy was at Valley Forge, keeping watch on how in Philadelphia, John Adams and others were talking of the sin of idolatry in the worship of Washington, of its flavor of the accursed spirit of monarchy and of the punishment which the God of heaven and earth must inflict for such perversity. Adams was all against Fabian policy and wanted to settle issues forever by a short and strenuous war. The idol it was being whispered proved after all to have feet of clay. One general and only one had to his credit a really great victory. Gates to whom Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga and there was a movement to replace Washington by this laurel Victor. General Conway, an Irish soldier fortune was one of the most troublesome in this plot. He had served in the campaign about Philadelphia but had been blocked in his extravagant demands for promotion. So he turned for redress to Gates the star in the north. A malignant campaign followed in detraction of Washington. He had it was said worn out his men by useless marches with an army three times as numerous as that of how he had gained no victory. There was high fighting quality in the American army if properly led, but Washington despised the militia. A Gates or Lee or Conway would save the cause as Washington could not and so on. Heaven has determined to save your country or a weak general and bad counselors would have ruined it. So wrote Conway to Gates and Gates allowed the letter to be seen. The words were reported to Washington who had once in high Dungeon called Conway to account. An explosion followed Gates both denied that he had received a letter with the passage in question. And at the same time charge that there have been tampering with his private correspondence, he could not have it both ways. Conway was merely impudent and replied to Washington, but Gates laid the whole matter before Congress. Washington wrote to Gates in reply to his denials, ironical references to rich treasures of knowledge and experience guarded with penurious reserve by Conway from his leaders, but revealed to Gates. There was no irony in Washington's reference to malignant detraction and mean intrigue. At the same time, he said to Gates, my temper leads me to peace and harmony with all men. And he deployed the internal strike, which injured the great cause. Conway soon left America. Gates lived to command another American army and to end his career by a crowning disaster. Washington had now been for more than two years in the chief command and knew his problems. It was a British tradition that standing armies were a menace due liberty and the tradition had gained strength in crossing the sea. Washington would have wished a national army recruited by Congress alone and bound to serve for the duration of the war. There was much talk at the time of a new model army similar in type to the wonderful creation of Oliver Cromwell. The thirteen colonies became, however, thirteen nations. Each reserved the right to raise its own levies in its own way. To induce men to enlist, Congress was twice handicapped. First, it had no power of taxation and could only ask the states to provide what it needed. The second handicap was even greater when Congress offered bounties to those who enlisted in the Continental Army. Some of the states offered higher bounties for their own levies of militia and one authority was bidding against the other. This encouraged short-term enlistments. If a man could re-enlist and again secure a bounty, he would gain more than if he enlisted at once for the duration of the war. An army is an intricate mechanism needing the same variety of agencies that is required for the well-being of a community. The chief aim is, of course, to defeat the enemy and to do this, an army must be prepared to move rapidly. Means of transport, so necessary in peace, are even more urgently needed in war. Thus Washington always needed military engineers to construct roads and bridges. Before the Revolution, the greater part of such services had been provided in America by the regular British Army, now the enemy. British officers declared that the American Army was without engineers who knew the science of war and certainly the forts on which they spent their skill in the north. Those on the lower Hudson and at Ticonderoga at the head of Lake George fell easily before the assailant. Good maps were needed and in this Washington was badly served, though the defect was often corrected by his intimate knowledge of the country. Another service ill-equipped was what we should now call the Red Cross. Epidemics and especially smallpox brought havoc in the army, then as now shattered nerves were sometimes the result of the strain of military life. The wind of a ball, what we should now call shell shock, sometimes killed men whose bodies appeared to be uninjured. To our more advanced knowledge, the medical science of the time seems crude. The physicians of New England today perhaps the most expert body of medical men in the world were even then highly skillful, but the surgeons and nurses were too few. This was true of both sides in the conflict. Prisoners in hospitals often suffered terribly and each side brought charges of ill treatment against the other. The prison ships in the harbor of New York where American prisoners were confined became a scandal and much better invective against British brutalities found in the literature of the period. The British leaders no less than Washington himself were humane men and ignorance and inadequate equipment will explain most of the hardships, though an occasional officer on either side was undoubtedly callous in respect to the sufferings of the enemy. Food and clothing, the first vital necessities of an army were often deplorably scarce in the land of farmers that was food enough. It's like in the army was chiefly due to bad transport. Clothing was another matter. One of the things insisted upon in a well-trained army is a decent regard for appearance. And in the eyes of the French and the British officers, the American army usually seemed rather unkempt. The formalities of dress, the uniformity of pipe clay and powdered hair, of polished steel and brass can of course be overdone. The British army had too much of it, but to Washington's force the danger was of having too little. It was not easy to induce farmers and frontiersmen who at home began the day without the use of water. In the long summer days the men were told to shave before going to bed that they might prepare the more quickly for parade in the morning and to fill their canteens overnight if an early march was imminent. Some of the regiments had uniforms which gave them a sufficiently smart appearance. The cocked hat, the loose hunting shirt with its fringe border, the breeches of brown leather or duck, the brown gaiters or leggings, the powdered hair were familiar marks of the soldier of the revolution. During a great part of the war, however, in spite of supplies brought from both France and the West Indies, Washington found it difficult to secure for his men even decent clothing of any kind, whether of military cut or not. More than a year after he took command in the fighting about New York, a great part of his army had no more semblance of uniform than hunting shirts on a common pattern. In the following December he wrote of many men as either shivering in garments fit only for summer wear or as entirely naked. There was a time in the later campaign in the South when hundreds of American soldiers marked stark naked except for breech cloths. One of the most pathetic hardships of a soldier's life was due to the lack of boots. More than one of Washington's armies could be tracked by the bloody footprints of his barefooted men. Near the end of the war Benedict Arnold, who knew whereof he spoke, described the American army as illy clad, badly fed and worse paid, being then two or three years overdue. On the other hand there is evidence that life in the army was not without its compensations. Enforced dwelling in the open air saved men from diseases such as consumption and the movement from camp to camp gave a broader outlook to the farmer's sons. The army could usually make a brave parade. On ceremonial occasions the long hair of the men would be tied back and made white with powder even though their uniforms were a little more than rags. The men carried weapons, some of which in at any rate the early days of the war were made by hand at the village smithy. A man might take to the war a weapon forged by himself. The American soldier had this advantage over the British soldier that he used, if not generally at least in some cases, not the smoothbore musket but the grooved rifle by which the ball was made to rotate in its flight. The fire from this rifle was extremely accurate. At first weapons were few and ammunition was scanty but in time there were importations from France and also supplies from American gun factories. The standard length of the barrel was three and a half feet, a portentous size compared with that of the modern weapon. The loading was from the muzzle, a process so slow that one of the favorite tactics of the time was to await the fire of the enemy and then charge quickly and bayonet him before he could reload. The old method of firing off the musket by means of slow matches kept the light during action was now obsolete. The latest device was the flintlock but there was always a measure of doubt whether the weapon would go off. Partly on this account, Benjamin Franklin, the wisest man of his time, declared for the use of the pike of an earlier age rather than the bayonet and forebows and arrows instead of firearms. A soldier he said could shoot four arrows to one bullet, an arrow wound was more disabling than a bullet wound, and arrows did not be clouded the vision with smoke. The bullet remained however the chief means of destruction and the fire of Washington soldiers usually excelled that of the British, these in their turn were superior in the use of the bayonet. Powder and lead were hard to get, the inventive spirit of America was busy with plans to procure salt peater and other ingredients for making powder but it remained scarce. Since there was no standard firearm, each soldier required bullets specially suited to his weapon. The men melted lead and casted in their own bullet molds. It is an instance of the minor ironies of war that the great equestrian statue of George III which had been erected in New York in days more peaceful was melted into bullets for killing that monarch's soldiers. Another necessity was paper for cartridges and wads. The cartridge of that day was a paper envelope containing the charge of ball and powder. And powder this served also as a wad after being emptied of its contents and was pushed home with a ramrod. A store of German Bibles in Pennsylvania fell into the hands of the soldiers at a moment when paper was a crying need and the pages of these Bibles were used for wads. The artillery of the time seems feeble compared with the monster weapons of death which we know in our own age yet it was an important factor in the war. It is probable that before the war not a single cannon had been made in the colonies. From the outset Washington was hampered for lack of artillery. Neutrals especially the Dutch and the West Indies sold guns to the Americans. And France was a chief source of supply during long periods when the British lost the command of the sea. There was always difficulty about equipping cavalry especially in the north. The Virginian was at home on horseback and in the farther south bands of cavalry did service during the later years of the war. The many of the fighting riders of today might tomorrow be guiding their horses peacefully behind the plow. The pay of the soldiers remained to Washington a baffling problem. When the war ended their pay was still heavily in arrears. The states were timid about imposing taxation and few if any paid promptly the levies made upon them. Congress bridged the chasm in finance by issuing paper money which so declined in value that as Washington said grimly it required a wagon load of money to pay for a wagon load of supplies. The soldier received his pay in this money at its face value. And there is a little wonder that the continental dollar is still in the United States a symbol of worthlessness. At times the lack of pay caused mutiny which would have been dangerous but for Washington's firm and tactful management at the time of crisis there was in him both the kindly feeling of the humane man and the rigor of the army leader. He sent men to death without flinching but he was at one with his men in their sufferings. And no problem gave him greater anxiety than that of pay affecting as it did the health and spirits of men who while unpaid had no means of softening the daily tale of hardship. Desertion was always hard to combat with the homes sickness which led sometimes to desertion. Washington must have had a secret sympathy for his letters show that he always longed for that pleasant home in Virginia which he did not allow himself to revisit until nearly the end of the war. The land of a farmer on service often remained untilled and there are pathetic cases of families in bitter need because the breadwinner was in the army in frontier settlements. His absence sometimes meant the massacre of his family by the savages. There is little wonder that desertion was common so common that after reverse the men went away by hundreds as they usually carried with them their rifles and other equipment desertion involved a double loss. On one occasion some soldiers undertook for themselves the punishment of deserters. Many of the first Pennsylvania regiment who had recaptured three deserters beheaded one of them and returned to their camp with the head carried on a pole. More than once it happened that condemned men were paraded before the troops for execution with the graves dug and the coffins lying ready. The death sentence would be read and then as the firing party took aim a reprieve would be announced the reprieve in such circumstances was omitted often enough to make the condemned endure the real agony of death. Religion offered its consolations in the army in Washington gave much thought to the service of the chaplains. He told his army that fine as it was to be a patriot it was finer still to be a Christian. It is an odd fact that though he attended the Anglican communion service before and after the war he did not partake of the communion during the war. What was in his mind we do not know he was disposed as he said himself to let men find that road to heaven which to them shall seem the most direct and he was without Puritan fervor but he had deep religious feeling. During the troubled days at Valley Forge a neighbor came upon him alone in the bush on his knees praying aloud and stole away unobserved he would not allow in the army a favorite Puritan customer burning the Pope in effigy and the prohibition was not easily enforced among men thousands of whom bore scriptural names from ancestors who thought the Pope anti Christ. Washington's winter quarters at Valley Forge were only 20 miles from Philadelphia among hills easily defended it is matter for wonder that how with an army well equipped did not make some attempt to destroy the army of Washington which passed the winter so near and in acute distress. The Pennsylvania loyalists with dark days soon to come were bitter at house in activity full of tragic meaning for themselves he said that he could achieve nothing prominent by attack. It may be so but it is a sound principle and warfare to destroy the enemy when this is possible. There was a time when in Washington's whole force not more than 2000 men were in a condition to fight. Congress was responsible for the needs of the army but was now in sordid inefficiency cooped up in the little town of York 80 miles west of Valley Forge to which it had fled. There was as yet no real federal union the seat of authority was in the state governments and we need not wonder that with the passing of the first burst of devotion which united the colonies in a common cause congress declined rapidly in public esteem what a lot of dam scoundrels we had in that second congress set at a later date governor Morris of Philadelphia to John Jay of New York and Jay answered gravely yes we had the body so despised in the retrospect had no real executive government no organized departments already before independence was proclaimed there had been talk of a permanent union but the members of congress had shown no sense of urgency and it was not until November 15 1777 when the British were in Philadelphia and congress was in exile at York that the articles of confederation were adopted by the following mid summer many of the states had ratified these articles but Maryland the last to ascend did not accept the new union until 1781 so that congress continued to act for the states without constitutional sanction during the greater part of the war the aptitude of congress is explained when we recall that it was a revolutionary body which indeed controlled foreign affairs and the issues of war and peace coined money and put forth paper money but had no general powers each state had but one vote and thus a small and sparsely settled state counted for as much as populist massachusetts or virginia the congress must deal with each state only as a unit it could not coerce a state and it had no authority to tax or to coerce individuals the utmost it could do was to appeal to good feeling and when a state felt that it had a grievance such an appeal was likely to meet with a flaming retort washington maintained towards congress an attitude of deference and courtesy which it did not always deserve the ablest men in the individual states held a loop from congress they felt that they had more dignity and power if they sat in their own legislatures the assembly which in the first days had his members men of the type of washington and franklin sank into a gathering of second-rate men who were divided into fierce factions they debated interminably and did little each member usually felt that he must champion the interests of his own state against the hostility of others it was not easy to create a sense of national life the union was only a league of friendship states which for a century or more had barely acknowledged their dependence upon great britain worked cherry about coming under the control of a new centralizing authority at philadelphia the new states were sovereign and some of them went so far as to send envoys of their own to negotiate with foreign powers in europe when it was urged that congress should have the power to raise taxes in the states there were patriots who asked sternly what the war was about if it was not to vindicate the principle that the people of a state alone should have power of taxation over themselves of new england all the other states were jealous and they particularly disliked that proud and sensorial city which already was accused of believing that god had made boston for himself and all the rest of the world for boston the religion of new england did not suit the anglicans of virginia or the roman catholics of maryland and there was resentful suspicion of puritan intolerance john adam said quite openly that there was no religious teachers in philadelphia to compare with those of boston and naturally other colonies drew away from the severe and rather acrid righteousness of which he was a type inefficiency meanwhile brought terrible suffering at valley forage and the horrors of that winter remained still vivid in the memory of the american people the army marched to valley forage on december 17, 1777 and in many winter everything from houses to entrenchments that's still to be created at once there was busy activity in cutting down trees for the log huts they were built nearly square 16 feet by 14 in rows with a door opening on improvised streets since boards were scarce and it was difficult to make roofs rainproof washington tried to stimulate ingenuity by offering a reward of $100 for an improved method of roofing the fireplaces of wood were protected with thick clay firewood was abundant but with little food for oxen and horses men had to turn themselves into draft animals to bring in supplies sometimes the army was for a week without meat many horses died for lack of forage or proper care a waste which especially disturbed washington a lover of horses when quantities of clothing were ready for use they were not delivered at valley forage owing to lack of transport washington expressed his contempt for officers who resigned their commissions in face of these distresses know when he said ever heard him say a word about resignation there were many desertions but on the whole he marveled at the patients of his men and that they did not mutiny with a certain grim humor they chanted phrases about no pay no clothes no provisions no rum and sang an ode glorifying war in washington hundreds of the march barefoot their blood staining the snow or the frozen ground while at the same time stores of shoes and clothing were lying unused somewhere on the roads to the camp sickness raged in the army few minute valley forage wrote washington had more than a sheet many only part of a sheet and said nothing at all hospital stores were lacking for want of strong blankets the sick lay perishing on the frozen ground and washington had been at valley forage for less than a week he had to report nearly three thousand men unfit for duty because of their nakedness in the bitter winter then as always what we now call the profiteer was holding up supplies for higher prices through the british of philadelphia because they paid in gold things were furnished which were denied to washington at valley forage and he announced that he would hang anyone who took provisions to philadelphia to keep his men alive washington had sometimes to take food by force from the inhabitants and then there was an outcry that this was robbery with many sick his horses so disabled that he could not move his artillery and his defenses very slightly could have made only a weak bite at how attacked him yet the legislature of pennsylvania told him that instead of lying quiet in winter quarters he ought to be carrying on an active campaign in most wars irresponsible men sitting by comfortable firesides are sure they knew best how the things should be done the bleak hill side at valley forage was something more than a prison washington's staff was known as his family and his relations with them were cordial and even affectionate the young officers faced their hardships cheerly and gave meager dinners to which no one might go if he was so well off as to have trousers without holes they talked and sang ingested about their privations by this time many of the bad officers of whom washington complained earlier had been weeded out and he was served by a body of devoted men there was much good comradeship partnership and suffering tends to draw men together in the company which gathered about washington two men were used at the time have a worldwide fame the young alexander hamilton barely 21 years of age and widely known already for his political writings had the rank of lieutenant colonel gained for his services in the fighting about new york he was now washington's confidential secretary a position in which he soon grew restless his ambition was to be one of the great military leaders of the revolution before the end of the war he had gone back to fighting and he distinguished himself in the last battle of the war at yorktown the other youthful figure was marquis de la fiet it is not without significance that a noble square bears his name in the capital named after washington the two men loved each other the young french aristocrat with both a great name and great possessions was fired in 1776 when only 19 was zeal for the american cause with the welfare of america he wrote to his wife his closely linked the welfare of mankind idealist in france believed that america was leading in the remaking of the world when it was known that la fiet intended to go to fight in america the king of france for battered since france had as yet no quarrel with england the youth however chartered a ship landed in south carolina hurried to philadelphia and was a major general in the american army when he was 20 years of age la fiet rendered no serious military service to the american cause he arrived in time to fight in the battle of the brandywine washington praised him for his bravery and military order and wrote to congress that he was sensible discreet and able to speak english freely it was with an eye to the influence in france of the name of the young noble that congress advanced him so rapidly la fiet was sincere and generous in spirit he had however little military capacity later when he might have directed the course of the french revolution he was found wanting in force of character the great merebo tried to work with him for the good of france but was repelled by la fiet's jealous vanity a vanity so greedy of praise that jefferson called it a canine appetite for popularity and fame la fiet once said that he had never had a thought with which he could reproach himself and he boasted that he had mastered three kings the king of england in the american revolution the king of france and king mob of paris during the upheaval in france he was useful as a diplomatess rather than as a soldier later in an hour of deep need washington sent la fiet to france to ask for aid he was influential at the french court and came back with abundant promises which were in part fulfilled washington himself and oliver cromwell are perhaps the only two civilian generals in history who stand in the first rank of military leaders it is doubtful indeed whether it is not rather character than military skill which gives washington his place only one other general of the revolution attained to first rank even in secondary fame nathania green was of quaker stock from rhod island he was a natural student and when in trouble with mother country was impending in 1774 he spent the leisure which he could spare from his forges in the study of military history and in organizing the local militia because of his zeal for military service he was expelled from the society of friends in 1775 when war broke out he was promptly on hand with a contingent from rhod island in little more than a year and after a very slender military experience he was in command of the army on long island on the hudson defeat not victory was his lot he had however as much stern resolve as washington he shared washington's success in the attack on trenton and his defeats at the brandy mine and at germantown now he was at valley forge and went on march the second 1778 he became quartermaster general the outlook for food and supplies steadily improved later in the south he rendered brilliant service which made possible the final american victory at Yorktown Henry Knox of boston bookseller had like green only slight training for military command it shows the dearth of officers to fight the highly disciplined british army that Knox at the age of 25 and fresh from commercial life was placed in charge of the meager artillery which washington had before boston it was Knox who with heartbreaking labor took to the american front the guns captured at ticonderoga throughout the war he did excellent service with the artillery and washington placed a high value upon his services he valued to those of daniel morgan an old fighter in the indian morse who left his farm in virginia when war broke out and marched his company of riflemen to join the army before boston he served with arnold at the siege of courbeck and was there taken prisoner he was exchanged and had his due revenge when he took part in the capture of bergoyne's army he was now at valley forge later he had a command under green in the south and there as we shall see he won the great success of the battle of calpans in january 1781 it was the peculiar misfortune of washington that the three men, arnold lee and gates who ought to have rendered him the greatest service proved unfaithful benedict arnold next to washington himself was probably the most brilliant and resourceful soldier of the revolution washington so trusted him that when the dark days at valley forge were over he placed him in command of the recaptured federal capital today the name of arnold would rank high in the memory of a grateful country had he not fallen into the bottomless pit of treason the same is in some measure true of charles lee who was freed by the british in an exchange of prisoners and joined washington at valley forge late in the spring of 1778 lee was so clever with his pen as to be one of the reputed authors of the letters of junius he had served as a british officer in the conquest of canada and later as major general in the army of poland he had a jealous and venomous temper and could never conceal the contempt of a professional soldier for civilian generals he too fell into the abyss of treason a ratio gates also a regular soldier had served under braddock and was thus at that early period a comrade of washington in trigger he was but not a traitor he was incompetence and perhaps cowardice which brought his final ruin europe had thousands of unemployed officers some of whom had had experience in the seven years war and many turned eagerly to america for employment there were some good soldiers among these fighting adventurers kazusko later famous as a polish patriot rose by his merits to the rank of brigadier general in the american army the cowl son of a german peasant though not a baron as he called himself prove worthy of the rank of a major general there was however a flood of volunteers of another type french officers fleeing from their creditors and sometimes under false names and titles made their way to america as best they could and came to washington with pretentious claims germans and polls there were two and also exiles from that unhappy island which remains still the most vexing problem of british politics some of them wrote their own testimonials some two were spies on the first day washington wrote they talked only of serving freely a noble cause but within a week were demanding promotion and advance of money sometimes they took a high tone with members of congress who had not courage to snub what washington called impudence and bane boasting i'm haunted and teased to death by the importunity of some and dissatisfaction of others wrote washington of these people one foreign officer rendered incalculable service to the american cause it was not only on the british side that germans served in the american revolution the baron von steuben was like lafayette a man of rank in his own country and his personal service to the revolution was much greater than that of lafayette steuben has served on the staff of frederick the great and was distinguished for his wit in his polish manners there was in him nothing of the needy adventurer the sale of hessian and other troops to the british by greedy german princes was met in some circles in germany by a keen desire to aid the cause of the young republic steuben and melda lucrative post became convinced while on a visit to paris that he could render service and training the americans with quick sympathy and showing no reserve in his generous spirit he abandoned his country as it proved forever took ship for the united states and arrived in 1777 washington welcomed him at valet forge in the following march he was made inspector general and once took in hand the organization of the army he prepared regulations for the order and discipline of the troops of the united states later in 1779 issued as a book under this german influence british methods were discarded the word of command became short and sharp the british practice of leaving recruits to be trained by sergeants often ignorant course and brutal was discarded and officers themselves did this work the last letter which washington wrote before he resigned his command at the end of the war was to thank steuben for his invaluable aid charles lee did not believe that american recruits could be quickly trained so as to be able to face the disciplined british battalions steuben was to prove that lee was wrong to lee's own entire undoing at monmouth when fighting began in 1778 the british army in america furnished sharp contrast to that of washington if the british jeered at the fighting qualities of citizens these retorted that the british soldier was a mere slave there were two great stains upon the british system the press gang and flogging press gangs might seize men abroad in the street of a town and unless they could prove that they were gentlemen and wreck they could be sent in the fleet to serve in the remotest corners of the earth in both navy and army flogging outraged the dignity of manhood the liability to this brutal and degrading punishment kept all but the dregs of the populace from enlisting in the british army it helped to fix the deep gulf between officers and men 40 years later napoleon bone apart desperate though he might be was struck by this separation he himself went freely among his men warmed himself at their fire and talked to them familiarly about their work and he thought that the british officer was too aloof in his demeanor in the british army serving in america there were many officers of aristocratic birth and long training in military science when they found that american officers were frequently drawn from a class of society which in england would never aspire to a commission and were largely self-taught not unnaturally they jeered at an army so constituted another fact excited british disdain the americans were technically rebels against their lawful ruler and rebels in arms have no rights as belligerents when the war ended more than a thousand american prisoners were still held in england on the capital charge of treason nothing stirred washington's anger more deeply than the remark sometimes made by british officers that the prisoners they took were receiving undeserved mercy when they were not hanged there was much debate at valley forge as to the prospect for the future when we look at available numbers during the war we appreciate the view of a british officer that in spite of washington's failures and of british victories the war was serious an ugly job a damned affair indeed the population of the colonies some two million five hundred thousand was about one third that of the united kingdom and for the british the war was removed from the base of supply in those days considering the means of transport america was as far from england as at the present day is australia sometimes the voyage across the sea occupied two and even three months and with the relatively small ships of the time it required a vast array of transports to carry an army of twenty or thirty thousand men in the spring of seventeen seventy six great britain have founded impossible to raise at home an army of even twenty thousand men for service in america and she was forced to rely in large part upon mercenary soldiers this was nothing new her island people did not like service abroad and this unwillingness was intensified in regard to war in remote america moreover wigged leaders in england discouraged enlistment they were literally hostile to the war which they regarded as an attack not less on their own liberties than on those of america it would be too much to ascribe to the ignorant british common soldier of the time any deep conviction as to the merits or demerits of the cause for which he fought there is no evidence that once in the army he was less ready to attack the americans than any other foe certainly the americans did not think he was half-hearted the british soldier fought indeed with more resolute determination than did the hard auxiliary at his side these german troops played a notable part in the war the despotic princes of the lesser german states were accustomed to sell the services of their troops despotic russia too was a likely feel for such enterprise when however it was proposed to the empress catherine the second that she should furnish 20,000 in for service in america she would toward it with the sage advice that it was england's true interest to settle the quarrel in america without war germany was left as the recruiting field british efforts to enlist germans as volunteers in her own army were promptly checked by the german rulers and it was necessary literally to buy the troops from their princes one fourth of the able-bodied hessa castle were shipped to america they received four times the rate of pay at home and their ruler received an addition some half million dollars a year the men suffered terribly and some died of sickness for the homes to which thousands of them never returned german general such as nip housing and ride a cell gave the british sincere and effective service the hessians were however of doubtful benefit to the british it angered the americans that hired troops should be used against them and angered not lessened by the contempt the hessians showed for the colonial officers as plebeians the two sides were much alike in their qualities and were skillful in propaganda in britain lure tales were told of a columnist scalping the wounded at lexington and using poison bullets at bunker hill in america every prisoner in british hands was said to be treated brutally and every man slain in the fighting to have been murdered the use of foreign troops was a fruitful theme the report ran through the colonies that the hessians were huge ogre-like double rows of teeth around each jaw who had come at the call of the british tyrant to slay women and children in truth many of the hessians became good americans in spite of the loyalty of their officers they were readily induced to desert the widow benjamin franklin was enlisted to compose telling appeals translated into simple german which promised grants of land to those who should abandon an unrighteous cause the hessian trooper who opened a packet of tobacco might find in the wrapper appeals both to his virtue and to his cupidity it was easy for him to resist them when the british were winning victories and he was dreaming of a return to the fatherland with a comfortable accumulation of pay but it was different when reverses overtook british arms then many hundreds slipped away and today their blood flows in the veins of thousands of prosperous american farmers end of chapter seven chapter eight of washington and his comrades in arms by george rung this libra vox recording is in the public domain the alliance with france and its results washington badly needed aid from europe but there every important government was monarchical and it was not easy for a young republic the child of revolution to secure an ally france tingled with joy at american victories and sorrowed at american reverses but motives were mingled and perhaps hatred of england was stronger than love for liberty in america the young lafayette had a pure zeal but he would not have fought for the liberty of colonists in mexico as he did for those in virginia and the difference was that service in mexico would not hurt the enemy of france so recently triumphant england and said so quite openly the thought of humiliating and destroying that insolent nation was always to him an inspiration virgin the french foreign minister though he lacked genius was a man of boundless zeal and energy he was at work at four o'clock in the morning and he spent his long days in toil for his country he believed that england was the tyrant of the seas the monster against whom he always prepared a greedy perfidious neighbor the natural enemy of france from the first days of the trouble in regard to the stamp act their gen had rejoiced that england's own children were turning against her he had french military officers in england spying on her defenses when war broke out he showed no nice regard for the rules of neutrality and helped the colonies in every way possible he was a very rich writer who led in these activities though marce is known to the world chiefly as the creator of the character of figure which has become the type of the bold clever witty and intriguing rascal but he played a real part in the american revolution we need not inquire too closely into his motives there was hatred of the english that audacious unbridled shameless people and there was too the zeal for liberal ideas marie antoinette herself take a pretty interest in the dear republicans overseas who were at the same time fighting the national enemy though marce secured from the government money with which he purchased supplies to be sent to america he had a great warehouse in paris and under the rather fantastic spanish name of rodrig horteles and company he sent vast quantities of munitions and clothing to america canon not from private firms but from the government arsenals were sent across the sea when vergen showed scruples about this violation of neutrality the answer though marce was that governments were not bound by rules of morality applicable to private persons vergen learned well the lesson and while protesting to the british ambassador in paris that france was blameless he permitted outrageous breaches of the laws of neutrality secret help was one thing open alliance another early in 1776 silas dean a member from connecticut of the continental congress was named as an envoy to france to secure french aid the day was to come when dean should believe the struggle against britain hopeless and council submission but now he showed a furious zeal a word of french but this did not keep him from making his elaborate program well understood himself a trader he promised france vast profits from the monopoly of the trade of america when independence should be secure he gave other promises not more easy of fulfillment to frenchman zealous for the ideals of liberty and seeking military careers in america he promised freely commissions as kernels and even generals and was the chief cause of that deluge of european officers which proved to washington so annoying it was through deans activities that lafayette became a volunteer through him came to the proposal to send to america the com the bro li who should be greater than kernel or general a general lisimo a dictator he was to brush aside washington to take command of the american armies and by his prestige and skill to secure france as an ally and win victory in the field for such services broglie asked only to spot a power while he served and for life a great pension which would he declared not be one hundredth part of his real value that dean should have considered a scheme so fantastic reveals the measure of his capacity and by the end of 1776 benjamin franklin was sent to paris to bring his tried skill to bear upon the problem of the alliance with dean and franklin as a third member of the commission was associated arthur lee who had vainly sought aid at the courts of spain and prussia france was however coy the end of 1776 saw the colonial cause at a very low ebb with washington driven from new york and about to be driven from philadelphia defeat is not a good argument for an alliance france was willing to send arms to america and willing to let american privateers use freely her ports the ship which carried franklin to france soon busied herself as a privateer and reaped for her crew a great harvest of prize money in a single week of june 1777 this ship captured a score of british of which more than 2000 were taken by americans during the war france allowed the american privateers to come and go as they liked and gave england smooth words but no redress there was little wonder that england threatened to hang captured american sailors as pirates it was the capture of bergoin at saratoga which brought decision to france that was the victory which virgin had demanded before he would take open action one british army had surrendered another was in an untenable position in philadelphia it was known that the british fleet had declined with the best of it in america france was the more likely to win successes in europe the bourbon king of france could too draw into the war the bourbon king of spain and spain had good ships the defects of france and spain on the sea were not in ships but in men the invasion of england was not improbable and then less than a score of years might give france both avenging justice for her recent humiliation and safety for her future britain should lose america she should lose india she should pay in a hundred ways for her past triumphs for the arrogance of pit who had declared that he would so reduce france that she should never again rise the future should belong not to britain but to france thus it was that fervent patriotism argued after the defeat of burgoyne frederick the great told his ambassador at paris to urge upon france that she had now a chance to strike england which might never again come france need not he said fear his annity for he was as likely to help england as the devil to help a christian whatever doubts virgin may have entertained about an open alliance with america were now swept away the treaty of friendship with america was signed on february six seventeen seventy eight on the thirteenth of march the french ambassador in london told the british government was studied insolence of tone that the united states were by their own declaration independent only a few weeks earlier the british ministry had said that there was no prospect of any foreign intervention to help the americans and now in the most galling manner france told george the third the one thing to which he would not listen for the great part of his sovereignty was gone each country withdrew its ambassador and war quickly followed france had not tried to make a hard bargain with the americans she demanded nothing for herself and agreed not even to ask for the restoration of canada she required only that america should never restore the king's sovereignty in order to secure peace certain sections of opinion in america were suspicious of france was she not the old enemy who had so long harassed the frontiers of new england and new york if george the third was a despot what of louis the sixteenth who had not even an elected parliament to restrain him washington himself was distrustful of france and months after the alliance had been concluded he uttered the warning that hatred of england must not lead to overconfidence in france no nation that is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interests france he thought must desire to recover canada so recently lost he did not wish to see a great military power on that northern frontier of the united states this would be to confirm the jeer of the loyalists that the alliance was a case of a wooden horse in Troy the old enemy would come back and the guys of a friend and would then prove to be master and bring the colonies under a servitude to the supremacy which seemed indeed mild the intervention of france brought a cruel embarrassment to the weak patriot in england he could rejoice and mourn with american patriots because he believed that their cause was his own it was as much the interest of norfolk as of massachusetts that the new despotism of a king who ruled through a corrupt parliament should be destroyed it was however another matter when france took a share in the fight france for freedom then for revenge and the englishman who like coke of norfolk could daily toast washington as the greatest of men could not link that name with louis the 16th or with his minister verjan the currents of the past are to swift and intricate to be measured exactly by the observer who stands on the shore of the present but it is arguable that the wigs might soon have brought about peace in england had it not been for the intervention of france or the person any longer thought that taxation could be enforced upon america or that the colonies should be anything but free in regulating their own affairs george the 3rd himself said that he who declared the taxing of america to be worth what it cost was more fit for bedlam than a seat in the senate the one's concession britain was not yet prepared to make was independence but burke and many other wigs were ready now for this though chatham still believed it would be the chatham however was all for conciliation and it is not hard to imagine a group of wise men chosen from both sides men british and blood and outlook sitting round the table and reaching an agreement to result in a real independence for america and a real unity with great britain a century and a quarter later a bitter war with an alien race in south africa was followed by a result even more astounding the surrender of bergoyne had made the prime minister lord north weary of his position he had never been in sympathy with the king's policy and since the bad news had come in december he had pondered some radical step which should end the war on february 17 17 78 before the treaty of friendship between the united states and france have been made public north startle the house of commons by introducing a bill repealing the tax on t renouncing forever the right to tax america and nullifying those changes in the constitution of massachusetts which had so rankled in the minds of its people a commission with full powers to negotiate peace would proceed at once to america and it might suspend at its discretion and thus really repeal any act touching america passed since 1763 north had taken a sharp turn the wig clothes have been stolen by a torey prime minister and if you wish to stay in office the wigs had not the votes to turn him out his supporters would accept almost anything in order to dish the wigs they swallowed now the bill and it became law but at the same time came to the war with france it united the tories had divided the wigs all england was deeply stirred nearly every important town offered to raise volunteer forces at its own expense the government soon had 15,000 men recruited at private cost help was offered so freely that the wig john wilkes actually introduced into parliament a bill to prohibit gifts of money to the crown since this voluntary taxation gave the crown money without the consent of parliament the british patriot gentle as he might be towards america fumed against france this was no longer only a domestic struggle between parties but a war with an age long foreign enemy the populace resented what they call the insolence and the treachery of france and the french ambassador was pelted at canterbury to the sea coast on his recall in a large sense the french alliance was not an unmixed blessing for america since it confused the councils of her best friends in england in spite of this it is probably true that from this time the mass of the english people were against further attempts to coerce america a change of ministry was urgently demanded there was one leader to whom the nation looked in this grave crisis the genius of william pit url of chatham had won the last war against france and he had promoted the repeal of the stamp act in america his name was held in reverence so high that new york and charleston had erected statues in his honor when the defeat of bergoyne so shook the ministry that north was anxious to retire chatham about four or two obstacles could probably have formed a ministry one obstacle was his age as the event proved he was near his end it was however not this which kept him from office but the result of george the third the king simply said that he would not have chatham in office chatham would certainly rule and the king intended himself to rule if chatham would come in a subordinate position well but chatham should not lead the king declared that as long as even ten minutes stood by him he would hold out and he would lose his crown rather than call to office that clamorous opposition which had attacked his american policy i will never consent he said firmly to removing the members of the present cabinet from my service he asked north are you resolved at the hour of danger to desert me north remained in office chatham soon died and during four years still george the third was master of england throughout the long history of that nation there is no crisis in which one man took a heavier and more disastrous responsibility news came to belly forge of the alliance with france and there were great rejoicings we are told that to celebrate the occasion washington dined in public we are not given the bill of fair in that scene of famine but by the springtime tension in regard to supplies have been relieved and we may hope that belly forge really feasted in honor of the great event the same news brought gloom to the british and philadelphia for it had the stern meaning that the effort and loss involved in the capture of that city were in vain washington held most of the surrounding country so that supplies must come chiefly by sea with a french fleet and a french army on the way to america the british realized that they must concentrate their defenses thus the cheers at belly forge were really the sign that the british must go so we in how having taken philadelphia was determined not to be the one who should give it up feeling was bitter in england over the ghastly failure of bergoin and he had gone home on parole to defend himself from his seat in the house of commons there how had a seat and he too had need to be on hand lord george germain had centered him for his course and to shield himself was clearly resolved to make scapegoats of others so on may 1817 1778 of philadelphia there was a farewell to how which took the form of a miss jianza something approaching the medieval tournament knights broke lances in honor of fair ladies there were arches and flowers and fancy costumes my flown latin and french all in praise of the departing howl obviously the garrison of philadelphia had much time on its hands and could count upon at least some chews from a friendly population it is remembered still with moralizing on the turns in human fortune that major andre and miss margaret shipping were the leaders in that gaze seen the one in the days to come to be hanged by washington as a spy because entrepped in the trees in a benedict darnold became the husband of the other on may 24 1778 sir henry clinton took over from howl the command of the british army in america and confronted a difficult problem if the sang the french admiral should sail straight for the delaware he might destroy the fleet of little more than half his strength which lay there and might quickly start philadelphia into surrender the british must unite their forces to meet the peril from france and new york and that was the best point for a defense chiefly naval a move to new york was therefore urgent it was by sea that the british should come to philadelphia but it was not easy to go away by sea there was not room in the transports for the army and its encumbrances moreover to embark the whole force a march of 40 miles through new castle on the lower delaware would be necessary and the retreating army was sure to be harassed on its way by washington it would be safe to take the army by sea for the french fleet might be strong enough to capture the flotilla there was nothing for it but at whatever risk to abandon philadelphia and march the army across new jersey it would be possible to take by sea the stores and the 3000 loyalists from philadelphia some of whom would probably be hanged if they should be taken lord howe the naval commander did his part in a masterly manner on the 18th of june the british army marched out of philadelphia and before the day was over it was across the delaware on the new jersey side that same day washington's army free from its long exile at valley forge occupied the capital clinton set up on his long march by land and howe worked his laden ships down the difficult river to its mouth and after delay by winds put to sea on the 28th of june by a stroke of good fortune he sailed the 200 miles to new york in two days and missed the great fleet of disdain an army of 4000 men on the 8th of july disdain anchored at the mouth of the delaware had not his passage been unusually delayed and howe was unusually quick as washington noted the british fleet and the transports in the delaware would probably have been taken and clinton and his army would have shared the fate of bergoyne as it was the house fleet was clear away clinton's army had a bad time in the march across new jersey its baggage strain was no less than 12 miles long and along roads leading sometimes through forest was peculiarly vulnerable to flank attack in this type of warfare washington excelled he had fought over this country and he knew it well the tragedy of valley forge was passed his army was now well trained and well supplied he had about the same number of men as the british perhaps 16000 and he was not encumbered by a long baggage train thus it happened that washington was across the delaware almost as soon as the british had marched parallel with them on a line some 5 miles to the north and was able to forge towards the head of their column he could attack their flank almost when he liked clinton march with great difficulty he found bridges down not only was washington behind him and on his flank but general gates was in front marching from the north to attack him when he should try to cross the raritan river the long british column turned south eastward towards sandy hook so as to lessen the menace from gates of the army in the van and the other half in the rear was the baggage train the crisis came on sunday the 28th of june a day of sweltering heat by this time general charles lee washington's second in command was in a good position to attack the british rearguard from the north while washington marching 3 miles behind lee was to come up in the hope of overwhelming it from the rear clinton's position was difficult but he was saved by lee's ineptitude he had positive instructions to attack 1,000 men and all the british engaged until washington should come up in overwhelming force the young lafayette was with lee he knew what washington had ordered but lee said to him you don't know the british soldiers we cannot stand against them lee's conduct looks like deliberate treachery instead of attacking the british he allowed them to attack him lafayette managed to send a message to washington in the rear washington dashed to the front and as he came up met soldiers flying from before the british called him in flaming anger a damn poultry and himself at once took command there was a sharp fight near monmouth courthouse the british was driven back and only the coming of night ended the struggle washington was preparing to renew it in the morning but clinton had marched away in the darkness he reached the coast in the 30th of june having lost on the way 59 men from sunstroke over 300 in battle and a great many more by desertion the desertas were chiefly germans enticed by skillful offers of land washington called for a reckoning from lee he was placed under arrest tried by court marshal found guilty and suspended from rank for 12 months ultimately he was dismissed from the american army lest it appears for his conduct in monmouth and for his impudent demeanor toward congress afterwards these events on land were quickly followed by stirring events on the sea the delays of the british admiralty of this time seemed almost incredible 200 ships waited at spithead for 3 months for a convoy to the west indies while all the time the people of the west indies cut off from their usual sources of supply in america were in distress for food 7 weeks passed after disdain had sailed for america before the admiralty knew that he was really gone and sent admiral byron with 14 ships to the aid of lord howe when disdain was already before new york byron was still battling with storms so severe that his fleet was entirely dispersed and his flagship was alone when it reached long island on the 18th of august meanwhile the french had a great chance on the 11th of july their fleet much stronger than the british arrived from the delaware and anchored off sandy hook admiral howe knew his danger he asked for volunteers from the merchant ships and the sailors offered themselves almost to a man if disdain could beat howe's inferior fleet the transports at new york would be at his mercy on the british army with no other source of supply must surrender washington was near to give help on land the end of the war seemed not far away but it did not come the french admals were often taken from an army command and disdain was not a sailor but a soldier he feared the skill of howe a really great sailor who's seven available ships were drawn up in line at sandy hook so that their guns bore on ships coming in across the bar disdain hovered outside pilots from new york told him that at high tide there were only 22 feet of water on the bar and this was not enough for his great ships one of which carried 91 guns on the 22nd of july there was the highest of tides with in reality 30 feet of water on the bar and a wind from the northeast which would have brought disdain's ships easily through the channel into the harbor the british expected the hottest naval fight in their history at three in the afternoon disdain moved but it was too late to sail away out of sight opportunity though once spurned seemed yet to knock again the one other point held by the british was newport road island here general picket had 5000 minute only perilous communications by sea with new york washington keenly desires to capture this army sent general green to aid general sullivan in command at providence and disdain arrived off newport to give aid green had 1500 fine soldiers sullivan had 5000 new england militia disdain 4000 french regulars a force of 14500 men threatened 5000 british but on the 9th of august how suddenly appeared near newport with his smaller fleet disdain put to sea to fight him and a great naval battle was imminent when a terrific storm blew up and separated and almost shattered both fleets disdain then in spite of american protests insisted on taking the french ships to boston to refit and with them the french soldiers sullivan publicly denounced the french admiral as having basically deserted him and his own disgusted humanry left in hundreds for their farms together in the harvest in september with disdain safely away clinton sailed into newport with 5000 men washington's campaign against road island had failed completely the summer of 1778 thus turned out badly for washington helped from france which had aroused such joyous hopes in america had achieved little and the allies were hurling reproaches at each other french and american soldiers had riotous fights in boston and a french officer was killed the british meanwhile were landing at small ports on the coast which had been the haunts of privateers and were not only burning shipping and stores but were devastating the country with loyalist regiments recruited in america the french told the americans that they were expecting too much from the alliance and the cautious washington express fear that helped from outside with relaxed effort at home both were right by the autumn the british had been reinforced and the french fleet had gone to the west indies truly the mountain and labor of the french alliance seemed to have brought forth only a ridiculous mouse none the less was it to prove in the end the decisive factor in the struggle the alliance with france altered the whole character of the war which ceased now to be merely a war in north america france soon gained an ally in europe bourbon spain no thought of helping the colonies in rebellion against their king and she viewed their ambitions to extend westward with jealous concern since she desired for herself both sides of the mississippi spain however had a grievance against britain for britain would not yield Gibraltar that rocky fragment of spain commanding the entrance to the Mediterranean which britain had rested from her as she had rested also minyorka and florida so in april 1779 spain joined france in war on great britain france agreed not only to furnish an army for the invasion of england but never to make peace until britain had handed back Gibraltar the allies planned to seize and hold the isle of white england has often been threatened and yet has been so long free from the tramp of hostile armies that we are tempted to dismiss slightly such dangers but in the summer of 1779 the danger was real of warships carrying 50 guns or more france and spain together at 121 britain had 70 the british channel fleet for the defense of home coasts numbered 40 ships of the line while france and spain together had 66 nor had written resources in any other quarter upon which she could readily draw in the west ended she had 21 ships of the line while france had 25 the british could not find comfort in any supposed superiority in the structure of their ships then and later as nelson admitted when he was fighting spain the spanish ships were better built than the british lurking in the background to haunt british thought was the growing american navy john paul was a scott sailor who had been a slave trader and subsequently master of a west india merchantman and on going to america had assumed the name of jones he was a man of boundless ambition vanity and vigor and when he commanded american privateers he became a terror to the maritime people from whom he sprang in the summer of 1779 when jones with a squadron of warships haunting the british coast every harbour was nervous at limit a boom blocked the entrance but other places had not even this defense so welter scott has described how on september 1717 79 a squadron under john paul jones came within gunshot of leaf deported edinburgh the whole surrounding country was alarmed since for two days the squadron had been in sight beating up the first of fourth a sudden squall which drove jones back probably saved edinburgh from being plundered a few days later jones was burning ships in the humber and on the 23rd of september he met all flambora head and after a desperate fight captured two british arms ships the serapus of 40 gun vessel newly commissioned and the counters of scarborough carrying 20 guns both of which were convoying a fleet the fame of his exploit rang through europe jones was a regularly commissioned officer in the navy of the united states but neutral powers such as holland had not yet recognized the republic and to them there was no american navy the british regarded him as a trader and pirate and might possibly have hanged him had he fallen into their hands terrible days indeed were these four distracted england in india france walked 20 years earlier was working for her entire overthrow and in north africa spain was using the moors to the same end as time passed the storm grew more violent before the year 1780 ended holland had joined england's enemies moreover the northern states of europe angry at british interference on the sea with their trade and especially at her seizure of ships trying to enter blockaded ports took strong measures on march 8 1780 russia issued a proclamation to claim that neutral ships must be allowed to come and go on the sea as they liked they might be searched by a nation at war for arms and ammunition but for nothing else it would declare a blockade of a port and punish neutrals for violating it unless their ships were actually caught in an attempt to enter the port danmark and sweden joined russia in what was known as the armed neutrality and promised that they would retaliate upon any nation which did not respect the conditions laid down in domestic affairs great britain was divided the wigs and toys were carrying on a warfare shameless beyond even the bitter partisan strife of later days in parliament the wigs cheered their feats which might serve to discredit the tori government the navy was torn by faction when in 1778 the wig admiral keppel fought and in decisive naval battle off you shan and was afterwards accused by one of his officers or huge palisar of not pressing the enemy hard enough party passion was in both the wigs were for a couple the tories for a palisar and the london mob was wig when couple was acquitted there were riotous the house of palisar was wrecked and he himself barely escaped with his life wig naval officers declared that they had no chance of fair treatment at the hands of a tori admiral and lord howe among others now refused to serve for a time british supremacy on the sea disappeared and it was only regained in april 1782 when the tori admiral rodney won a great victory in the west indies against the french a spirit of violence was abroad in england the disabilities of the roman catholics was a gross scandal they might not vote or hold public office yet when in 1780 parliament passed a bill removing some of their burdens dreadful riots broke out in london a fanatic lord george gordon led a mob to west minster and as dr johnson expressed it insulted both houses of parliament the child ministry did nothing to check the disturbance the mob burned nougat jail released the prisoners from this and other prisons and made a deliberate attempt to destroy london by fire under the personal direction of the king who with all his faults was no coward at the same time the irish parliament under protestant lead was making a declaration of independence which in 1782 england was obliged to admit by formal act of parliament for the time being though the two monarchies had the same king ireland in name at least was free of england washington's enemy thus had embarrassments enough yet these very years 1779 and 1780 the years in which he came near us to despair the strain of a great movement is not in the early days of enthusiasm but in the slow years when idealism is tempered by the strife of opinion and self-interest which brings delay and disillusion as the war went on recruiting became steadily more difficult the alliance with france actually worked to discourage it since it was felt that the cause was safe in the hands of this powerful ally whatever great britain's difficulties about finance they were like compared with washington's in time the continental dollar was worth only two cents yet soldiers long had to take this money at its face value for their pay with the result that the pay for three months was scarcely by a pair of boots there's little wonder that more than once washington had to face formidable mutiny among his troops the only ones on whom he could rely were the regulars enlisted by congress and carefully trained the worth of the militia depends entirely on the prospects of the day if favorable they thronged to you if not they will not move they played a chief part in the prosperous campaign of 1777 when bergoyne was beaten in the next year before newport they wholly failed general sullivan and deserted shamelessly to their homes by 1779 the fighting had shifted to the south washington personally remained in the north to guard the hudson and to watch the british in new york he sent lafayette to france in january 1779 there to urge not merely naval but military aid on a great scale lafayette came back after an absence of little over a year and in the end france promised 8000 men who should be under washington's control as completely as if they were american soldiers the older nation accepted the principle that the officers in the younger nation which she was helping should rank in their grade before her own it was a magnanimity reciprocated nearly a century and a half later when a great american army in europe was placed under the supreme command of a marshal of france end of chapter 8 chapter 9 of washington and his comrades in arms by george ron this liber box recording is in the public domain the war in the south after 1778 there was no more decisive fighting in the north the british plan was to hold new york and keep there a threatening force but to make the south henceforth the central arena of the war accordingly in 1779 they evacuated road island and left the magnificent harbour of newport to be the chief base for the french fleet and army in america they also drew in their posts and left washington free to strengthen west point and other defenses by which he was blocking the river meanwhile they were striking staggering blows in the south on december 29 1778 a british force landed two miles below savannah in georgia lying near the mouth of the important savannah river and by nightfall after some sharp fighting took the place with its stores and shipping the capital of georgia lay about 125 miles up the river by the end of february 1779 the british not only held augusta but had established so strong a line of posts in the interior that georgia seemed to be entirely under their control then followed a singular chain of events ever since hostilities had begun in 1775 the revolutionary party had been dominant in the south again in 1779 the british flag floated over the capital of georgia some rejoiced and some mourned men do not change lightly their political allegiance probably boston was the most revolutionary of american towns yet even in boston there had been a sad procession of exiles who would not turn against the king the south had been more evenly divided now the loyalists took heart and began to assert themselves when the british seemed secure in georgia bands of loyalists marched into the british camp in furious joy that now their day was come and gave no gentle advice as to the crushing of rebellion many a patriot farmhouse was now destroyed and the hapless owner either killed or driven to the mountains to live as best he could by hunting sometimes even the children were shot down it so happened that a company of militia captured a large band of loyalists marching to augusta to support the british cause here was the occasion for the republican patriots to assert their principles to them these loyalists were guilty of treason accordingly 70 of the prisoners were tried before a civil court and 5 of them were hanged for this hanging of prisoners the loyalists of course retaliated in kind both british and american regular officers tried to restrain these fierce passions but the spirit of the war in the south was powerless to this day many a tale of horror is repeated and since loyalist opinion was finally destroyed no one survived to a portion blame to their enemies it is probable that each side matched the other in barbarity the british hoped to sweep rapidly through the south to master it up to the borders of virginia and then to conquer that breeding ground of revolution in the spring of 1779 general carolina on the 12th of may he was before charleston demanding surrender we are astonished now to read that in response to prevo's demand a proposal was made that south carolina should be allowed to remain neutral and that at the end of the war it should join the victoria side this certainly indicates a large body of opinion which was not irreconcilable with great britain and seems to justify the hope of the british that the beginnings of military success might rally the mass of the people to their side for the moment however charleston did not surrender the resistance was so stiff that prevo's had to raise the siege and go back to savannah suddenly early in september 1779 the french fleet under disdain appeared before savannah it had come from the west indies partly to avoid the dreaded hurricane season of the autumn in those waters the british practically without any naval defense were confronted at once by 22 french ships of the line 11 frigates and many transports carrying an army the great flotilla easily got rid of the few british ships lying at savannah an american army under general lincoln marched to join disdain the french landed some 3000 men and the combined army numbered about 6000 a siege began which it seemed could end in only one way prevo's however were 3700 men nearly half of them sick was defined and on the 9th of october the combined french and american armies made a great assault they met with disaster disdain was severely wounded with losses of some 900 killed and wounded in the bitter fighting the assailants drew off and soon raised the siege the british losses were only 54 in the previous year french and americans fighting together had utterly failed now they had failed again and there was bitter recrimination between the defeated allies disdain sailed away and soon lost some of his ships in a violent storm ill fortune pursued him to the end he served no more in the war and in the reign of terror in paris in 1794 he perished on the scaffold at charleston the american general lincoln was in command with about 6000 men the place named after king charles the second had been a center of british influence before the war that critical traveler lord adam gordon thought its people clever in business courteous and hospitable most of them he says made a visit to england at some time during life and it was the fashion to send there the children to be educated obviously charleston was fitted to be a british rallying center in the south yet it had remained in american hands since the opening of the war in 1776 sir henry clinton the british commander had woefully failed in his assault on charleston now in december 1779 he sailed from new york to make a renewed effort with him and his best officers cornwallis simcoe and tarleton the last two skillful leaders of irregulars recruited in america and used chiefly for raids the wintry voyage was rough one of the vessels laden with cannon founded and sank and all the horses died but clinton reached charleston and was able to surround it on the landward side with an army at least 10,000 strong tarleton's irregulars rode through the country it is on record that he marched for 23 hours and 105 miles in 54 hours such mobility was irresistible on the 12th of april after a ride of 30 miles tarleton surprised in the night three regiments of american cavalry regulars at a place called biggins bridge routed them completely and according to his own account with the loss of three men wounded carried off 100 prisoners 400 horses and also stores at ammunition there was no doubt that tarleton's dragoons behaved with great brutality and would perhaps have taught it needed less and if as was indeed threatened by a british officer major ferguson a few of them had been shot on the spot for these outrages tarleton's dashing attacks isolated charleston and there was nothing for lincoln to do but to surrender this he did on the 12th of may bergoyne seemed to have been avenged the most important city in the south had fallen we look on americas at our feet wrote hoarse wallpole the british advanced boldly into the interior 29th of may tarleton attacked an american force under colonel buford killed over 100 men carried off 200 prisoners and at only 21 casualties it is such scenes that reveal the true character of the war in the south above all it was a war of hard writing often in the night of sudden attack and terrible bloodshed after the fall of charleston only a few american irregulars were to be found in south carolina it and georgia seemed safe in british control with british successes came the problem of governing the south on the royalist theory the recovered land had been in the state of rebellion and was now restored to its true allegiance everyone who had taken up arms against the king was guilty of treason with death as the penalty clinton had no intention of applying this hard theory but he was returning to new york and he had to establish a government on some legal basis during the first years of the war the royalists who would not accept that new order had been punished with great severity their day had now come clinton said that every good man must be ready to join in arms the king's troops in order to reestablish peace and good government wicked and desperate men who still opposed the king should be punished with rigor and have the property confiscated he offered pardon for past defenses except to those who had taken part in killing royalists no one was henceforth to be exempted from the act of duty of supporting the king's authority clinton's proclamation was very disturbing to the large element in south carolina which did not desire to fight on either side everyone must now be for or against the king and many were in their secret hearts resolved to be against him their fathered an orgy a bloodshed which discredits human nature the patriots fled to the mountains rather than yield and in their turn waylaid and murdered, straggling, loyalists under pressure some republicans will give outward compliance to royal government but they could not be coerced into a real loyalty it required only a reverse to the king's forces to make them again actively hostile to meet the difficult situation congress now made a disastrous blunder on june 13 1780 general gates the the lauded victor saratoga was given the command in the south camden on the watery river lies inland from charleston about 1025 miles as the crow flies the british had occupied it soon after the fall of charleston and it was now held by a small force under lord rodin one of the ablest of the british commanders gates had superior numbers and could probably have taken camden by a rapid movement but the man had no real stomach for fighting he delayed until on the 14th of august cornwallis arrived at camden with reinforcements and with the fixed resolve to attack gates before gates attacked him on the early morning of the 16th of august cornwallis with two thousand men marching northward between swamps on both flanks met gates with three thousand marching southward each of them intending to surprise the other a fierce struggle followed gates was completely routed with a thousand casualties a thousand prisoners and the loss of nearly a whole of his guns in transport the fleeing army was pursued for 20 miles by the relentless charleston general cob who had done much to organize the american army was killed the enemies of gates jeered at his riding away with the fugitives and hardly drawing rain until after four days he was at urlsborough 200 miles away his defense was that he proceeded with all possible dispatch which he certainly did to the nearest point where he could reorganize his forces his career was however ended he was deprived of his command in washington appointed to succeed him general nephaniel green in spite of the headlong fight of gates disaster camden had only a transient effect the war developed a number of regular leaders on the american side who were never beaten beyond recovery no matter what might be the reverses of the day the two most famous are francis maryon and thomas sumter maryon descended from a family of juganot exiles was sliding frame and courteous in manner sumter tall powerful and rough was the vigorous frontiersmen in type threatened men live long some to died in 1832 at the age of 96 the last surviving general of the revolution both men had had prolonged experience in frontier fighting against the indians charlton called maryon the old swamp fox because they often escaped through using bypass across the great swamps of the country british communications were always in danger a small british force might find itself in the midst of a host which had suddenly come together as an army only to dissolve next day into its elements of hearty farmers wasmen and mountaineers after the victory of camden cornwallis advanced into north carolina and sent major ferguson one of his most trusted officers with a force of about a thousand men into the mountainous country lying westward chiefly to secure loyalist recruits if attacked in force ferguson was to retreat and rejoin his leader the battle of king's mountain is hardly famous in the annals of the world and yet in some ways it was a decisive event suddenly ferguson found himself beset by hostile bands coming from the north the south the east and the west when in obedience to his orders he tried to retreat he found the way block and his messages were intercepted so that cornwallis was not aware of the peril ferguson harassed outnumbered at last took refuge on king's mountain a stony ridge on the western border between the two carolinas the north side of the mountain was a sheer impassable cliff and since the ridge was only half a mile long ferguson thought that his force could hold it securely he was however fighting an enemy deadly with the rifle and forced them to fire from cover the sides and top of king's mountain were wooded and strewn with boulders the motley assailants crept up to the crest while pouring a deadly fire on any of the defenders who exposed themselves ferguson was killed and in the end his force surrendered on october 7 1780 with 400 casualties in the loss of more than 700 prisoners the american casualties were 88 in reprisal for earlier acts on the other side the victors insulted the dead body of ferguson and hang nine of their prisoners on the limb of a great tulip tree then the improvised army scattered while the conflict for supremacy in the south was still uncertain in the northwest the americans made a stroke destined to have astounding results virginia had long coveted lands in the valleys of the ohia and the mississippi it was in this region that washington had first seen active service helping to rest that land from france the country was wild there was almost no settlement but over a few forts on the upper mississippi and in the regions lying eastward to the detroit river there was that flicker of a red flag which meant that the northwest was under british rule george rogers clark like washington a virginian land survey was a strong reckless brave frontiersman early in 1778 virginia gave him a small sum of money made him a lieutenant colonel and authorized him to raise troops for a western adventure he had less than 200 men when he appeared a little later at cascassia near the mississippi in what is now illinois and captured the small british garrison with the friendly consent of the french settlers about the fort he did the same thing at cahokia farther up the river the french scattered through the western country naturally sided with the americans fighting now in alliance with france the british sent out a force from detroit to try to check the efforts of clark in february 1779 the indomitable frontiersman surprised and captured this force had been sent on the wabash thus did clark's 200 famished and ragged men take possession of the northwest and when peace was made this vast domain an empire in extent fell to the united states clark's exploit is one of the pregnant romances of history perhaps the most awful phase of the revolution was the internal conflict wage between its friends and its enemies in america that neighbor fought against neighbor during this pitiless struggle the strength of the loyalists tended steadily to decline and they came at last to be regarded everywhere by triumphant revolution as a vile people who should bear the penalties of outcasts in this attitude towards them boston had given a lead which the rest of the country eagerly followed to coerce loyalists local committees sprang up everywhere it must be said that the loyalists gave abundant provocation at rebel officers of humble origin as convicts and shoe blacks there should be some fine hanging they promised on the return of the kings men to boston early in the revolution british colonial governors like lord dunmore virginia adopted the policy of reducing the rebels by harrying their coasts sailors would land at night from ships and commit their ravages in the light of burning houses soldiers would dart out beyond the british lines burner village carry off some wig farmers and escape before opposing forces could rally governor tryon of new york was specially active in these enterprises and to this day a special odium attaches to his name for these ravages and often with justice the loyalists were held responsible the result was a bitterness which fired even the calm spirit of benjamin franklin and let him win the day came for peace to declare that the plundering and murdering adherents of king george were the ones who should pay for damage and not the states which had confiscated loyalist property lists of loyalist names were sometimes posted and then the persons concerned were likely to be the victims of anyone disposed to mischief sometimes a suspected loyalist would find an effigy hung on a tree before his own door with a hint that next time the figure might be himself a musket ball might come whizzing through his window many a loyalist was stripped plunged in a barrel of tar and enrolled in feathers taken sometimes from his own bed punishment for loyalism was not however left merely to chance even before the declaration of independence congress sitting itself in a city where loyalism was strong urged the states to act sternly in repressing loyalist opinion they did not obey every urging of congress as eagerly as they responded to this one and practically every state test acts were passed and no one was safe who did not carry a certificate that he was free of any suspicion of loyalty to king george magistrates were paid a fee for these certificates and set a golden reason for insisting that loyalist should possess them to secure a certificate the holder must force where allegiance to the king and promise support to the state of war with him an unguarded word even about the value and gold of the continental dollar might lead to the adding of the speaker's name to the list of the proscribed legislatures passed bills denouncing loyalists the names of massachusetts read like a list of the leading families of new england the blacklist of 19 names of loyalists charged with treason and philadelphia had the grim experience of seeing two loyalists led to the scaffold with ropes around their necks and hanged most of the persecuted loyalists lost all their property and remained exiles from their former homes the self appointed committees took in hand the task of disciplining those who did not fly and the rabble often pushed matters to brutal extremes when we remember that washington himself regarded tories as the most conservative we can imagine the spirit of mobs which has sometimes the further incentive agreed for loyalist property loyalists have the experience of what we now call boycotting when they could not buy or sell in the shops and were forced to see their own shops plundered nils would not grind their corn their cattle were maimed and poisoned they could not secure payment of debts due to them or if payment was made they received it in the debased continental currency at its face they could not secure their property nor make a will it was a felony for them to keep arms no loyalists might hold office or practice law or medicine or keep a school some loyalists were deported to the wilderness in the back country many took refuge within the british lines especially at new york many loyalists created homes elsewhere some went to england only to find melancholy disillusion of hope that our grateful motherland would understand and reward their sacrifices large of the great lakes and their plate apart in laying the foundation of the dominion of today the city of toronto with the population of half a million is rooted in the loyalist traditions of its Tory founders Simcoe the first governor of upper Canada who made Toronto his capital was one of the most enterprising of the officers who served with Cornwallis in the south and surrendered with him at Yorktown the state of New York acquired from the forfeited lands of loyalists of the states profited in a similar way every loyalist whose property was seized had a direct and personal grievance he could join the british army and fight against his oppressors and this he did New York furnished about 15,000 men to fight on the british side plunder himself he could plunder his enemies and this too he did both by land and sea in the autumn of 1778 ships manned chiefly by loyalist refugees were terrorizing the coast from massachusetts to New Jersey they plundered Martha's vineyard burned some lesser towns such as New Bedford and showed no quarter to small parties of American troops whom they managed to intercept what happened on the coast happened also in the interior at Wyoming in the northeast and part of Pennsylvania in July 1778 during a raid of loyalists aided by Indians there was a brutal massacre the horrors of which long served to inspire hate for the british little later in the same year similar events took place in Sherry Valley in central New York burning houses the dead bodies not only of men but of women and children scalped by the savage allies of the loyalist desolation of ruin in scenes once peaceful and happy such horrors American patriotism learned to associate with the loyalists these in their turn remembered the slow martyrdom of their lives as social outcasts the threats and plunder which in the enforced them to fly the hardship starvation and death to their loved ones which were want to follow the conflict is perhaps the most tragic in irreconcilable in the whole story of the revolution in the chapter 9 chapter 10 of Washington and his comrades in arms by George wrong this LibriVox recording is in the public domain France to the rescue during 1778 and 1779 French war effort had failed now France resolved to do something decisive she never sent across the sea the 8000 men promised to Lafayette but by the spring of 1780 about this number were gathered addressed to find that transport was inadequate the leader was a French noble the Comte de Rochambe an old campaigner now in his 55th year who had fought against England before the 1770s war and had then been opposed by Clinton Cornwallis and Lord George Germain he was a sound and prudent soldier who shares with Lafayette the chief glory of the French service in America Rochambe had fought at the second battle of Minden where the father Lafayette had fallen and he had for the young Frenchman the aimable regard of a father and sometimes rebuked his impulsiveness with that spirit he studied the problem in America with the insight of a trained leader before he left France he made the pregnant comment on the outlook nothing without naval supremacy about the same time Washington was writing to Lafayette that a decisive naval supremacy was a fundamental need a gallant company it was which gathered at breast probably no other land than France could have sent forth on a crusade for liberty a band of aristocrats who had little thought of applying to their own land the principles for which they were ready to fight in America over some of them hung the shadow of the guillotine others were to ride the storm of the French Revolution and to attain fame which should surpass their sanguine dreams Rochambe himself though he narrowly escaped during the reign of terror lived to extreme old age and died a marshal Bertier one of his officers became one of Napoleon's marshals and died just when Napoleon whom he had deserted returned from Elba Dumas became another of Napoleon's generals he nearly perished in the retreat from Moscow but lived like Rochambe to extreme old age one of the gayest of the company was the Duke de Lausanne a noted libertine in France but as far as the record goes a man of blameless propriety in America he died on the scaffold during the French Revolution so too did his companion the prince de Broglie in spite of the protest of his last words that he was faithful to the principles of the revolution some of which he had learned in America another companion was the Swedish Count Fersen later the devoted friend of the unfortunate Queen Marie Antoinette the driver of the carriage in which the royal family made the famous flight to Varenne in 1791 and was destined to be trampled to death by a Swedish mob in 1810 other old and famous names there were Laval, Mont, Moran, Si, Mirobo, Taligrand, Saint-Simon it has been said that the names of the French officers in America read like a list of medieval heroes in the chronicles of Foissard only half of the expected ships were ready at breast and only 5,500 men could embark the vessels were of course very crowded all cut down the space allowed for personal effects he took no horse for himself and would allow men to go but he permitted a few dogs 45 ships that sail a truly imposing sight said one of those on board we have reports of their ennui on the long voyage of 70 days of their amusements and their devotions for twice daily were prayers read on deck they sailed into Newport on the 11th of July and the inhabitants of that still primitive spot illuminated their houses as best they could then the army settled down at Newport and there it remained for many weary months reinforcements never came partly through mismanagement in France partly through the vigilance of the British fleet which was on guard before breast the French had been for generations the deadly enemies of the English colonies and some of the French officers noted the reserve with which they were received the ice was however soon broken they brought with them gold and the New England merchants liked this relief from the debased continental currency some of the New England ladies were beautiful and the experience Lausanne expresses glowing admiration for a prim Quakerus whose simple dress he thought more attractive than the elaborate modes of Paris the French dazzled the ragged American army by their display of waving plumes and of uniforms and striking colors they wondered at the quantities of tea drunk by their friends and so do we when we remember the political hatred for tea they made the blunder common in Europe thinking that there were no social distinctions in America Washington could have told him a different story intercourse was it first difficult for few of the Americans spoke French and few were still of the French spoke English sometimes the talk was in Latin pronounced by an American scholar is not too bad a French officer writing in Latin to learn English English He made the effort and he and his fellow officers learned a quaint English speech when Rochambeau and Washington first met they conversed through Lafayette as interpreted but in time the older man did very well in the language of his American comrade and arms for a long time the French army effected nothing Washington long to attack New York and urged the effort but the wise and experienced Rochambeau no principle nothing without naval supremacy and insisted that in such an attack a powerful fleet should act with a powerful army and for the moment the French had no powerful fleet available the British were blockading in Narragansett Bay the French fleet which lay there had the French army moved away from Newport their fleet would almost certainly have become a prey to the British for the moment there was nothing to do but to wait the French preserved an admirable discipline against their army as a result of a series of outrage and plunder such as we have against the German allies of the British we must remember however that the French were serving in the country of their friends with every restraint of good feeling which this involved Rochambeau told his men that they must not be the theft of a bit of wood or of any vegetables or even a sheaf of straw he threatened the vice which he called sonorous drunkenness and even lack of cleanliness with sharp punishment the result was that a month after landing he could say that not a cabbage had been stolen our credulity is strained when we are told that apple trees with their fruit overhung the tents of his soldiers remained untouched thousands flocked to see the French camp the bands played and puritan maidens of all grades of society danced with the young French officers and we are told whether we believe it or not that there was the simple innocence of the Garden of Eden the zeal of the French officers and the friendly disposition of the men never failed there had been bitter quarrels in 1778 and 1779 and now the French were careful to be on their good behavior in America Rochambeau had been instructed to place himself under the command of Washington to whom were given the honors of a Marshal of France the French Admiral had however been given no such instructions and Washington had no authority over the fleet meanwhile events were happening which might have brought a British triumph on September 14, 1780 there arrived in Anchorage at Sandy Hook, New York 14 British ships of the line under Rodney the doughtiest of the British admiral's afloat Washington with his army headquarters at West Point, unguarded to keep the British from advancing up the Hudson was looking for the arrival not of a British fleet but of a French fleet from the West Indies for him these were very dark days the recent defeat at Camden was a crushing blow Congress was inept and had in it men as the patient General Green said without principles honor or modesty the coming of the British fleet was a new and overwhelming discouragement and on the 18th of September Washington left West Point for a long ride to Hartford in Connecticut halfway between the two headquarters there to take counsel with the French general Rochambeau it was said had been purposely created to understand Washington but as yet the two leaders had not met it is the simple truth that Washington had to go to the French as a beggar Rochambeau said later that Washington was afraid to reveal the extent of his distress he had to ask for men and for ships but he had also to ask for what a proud man dislikes to ask for money from the stranger who had come to help him the Hudson had long been the chief object of Washington's anxiety and now it looked as if the British intended some new movement at the river as indeed they did Clinton had not expected Rodney's squadron but it arrived opportunity and when it sailed up to New York from Sandy Hook on the 16th of September he began at once to embark his army taking pains at the same time to send out reports that he was going to the Chesapeake Washington concluded that the opposite was true and that he was likely to be going northward at West Point where the Hudson flows through a mountainous gap Washington had strong forces on both shores of the river his batteries commanded its whole width but shore batteries were ineffective against moving ships the embarking of Clinton's army meant that he planned operations on land he might be going to Rhode Island or to Boston but he might also dash up the Hudson it was an anxious leader who with Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton rode away from headquarters to Hartford the officer in command at West Point was Benedict Arnold General on the American side had a more brilliant record or could show more scars of battle we have seen him leading an army through the wilderness to Quebec and incurring hardships almost incredible later he is found on Lake Champlain fighting on both land and water when in the next year the Americans succeeded at Saratoga it was Arnold who bore at the brunt of the fighting at Quebec and again at Saratoga he was severely wounded in the summer of 1778 he was given the command at Philadelphia after the British evacuation it was a troubled time Arnold was concerned with confiscations of property for treason and with disputes about ownership, impulsive, ambitious and with a certain element of coarseness in his nature he made enemies he was involved in bitter strife with both Congress and the state government of Pennsylvania after a period of tension and privation and war one of slackness and luxury is almost certain to follow Philadelphia which has recently suffered for want of bearer necessities and collapsed into gay indulgence Arnold lived extravagantly he played a conspicuous part in society and a widower of 35 was successful in paying court to miss shipping the young lady of 20 with whom as Washington said all the American officers were in love malignancy was and Arnold was pursued with great bitterness Joseph Reed the president of the executive council of Pennsylvania not only brought charge against him of abusing his position for his own advantage but also laid the charges before each state government in the end Arnold was tried by court Marshall and after long and inexcusable delay on January 26 1780 he was acquitted of everything but the imprudence of using in an emergency public wagons to remove private property and of granting irregularly a pass to a ship to enter the port of Philadelphia yet the court ordered that for these trifles Arnold should receive a public reprimand from Commander-in-Chief Washington gave the reprimand in terms as gentle as possible and when in July 1780 Arnold asked for the important command at West Point Washington readily complied probably with relief that so important a position should be in such good hands the treason of Arnold now came rapidly to a head the man was embittered he had rendered great services and yet had been persecuted with spiteful persistence the truth seems to be too that Arnold thought America was ripe for reconciliation with Great Britain he dreamed that he might be the savior of his country Monk had reconciled the English Republic to the restored Stuart King Charles II Arnold might reconcile the American Republic to George III for the good of both that reconciliation he believed was widely desired in America he tried to persuade himself that to change sides in the civil strife was no more cupable than to turn from one party to another in political life he forgot however that it is never honorable to betray a trust it is almost certain that Arnold received a large sum in money for his treachery however this may be there was treason in his heart when he asked for and received the command at West Point and he intended to use his authority to surrender that vital post to the British and now on the 18th of September Washington was riding northeast into Connecticut British troops were on board ships in New York and all was ready on the 20th of the vulture sloop of war sailed up the Hudson from New York and anchored at Stony Point a few miles below West Point on board the vulture was the British officer who was treating with Arnold and who now came to arrange terms with him Major John Andre Clinton's young adjutant general a man of attractive personality undercover of night Arnold sent off a boat to bring Andre ashore to a remote thicket of fir trees outside the American lines the only fleet carrying an army was to sail up the river a heavy chain had been placed across the river at West Point to bar the way of hostile ships under pretense of repairs a link was to be taken out and replaced by a rope which would break easily the defenses of West Point were to be so arranged that they could not meet a sudden attack and Arnold was to surrender with his force of 3,000 men such a blow following the disasters at Charleston and Camden might end the strife and was prepared to yield everything but separation and America Arnold said could now make an honorable peace a chapter of accidents prevented the testing had Andre been rode ashore by British Tars they could have taken him back to the ship at his command before daylight as it was the American boatman suspicious perhaps of the meaning of his talk it meant that between an American officer and a British officer both of them in uniform refused to row Andre back to the ship because their own return would be dangerous in daylight contrary to his instructions and wishes Andre accompanied Arnold to a house within the American lines until he could be taken off under cover of night meanwhile however an American battery on shore angry at the vulture lying defiantly within range opened fire upon her and she dropped down streamed some miles this was alarming Arnold however arranged with a man to row Andre down the river and about midday went back to West Point it was uncertain how far the vulture had gone the vigilance of those guarding the river was aroused and Andre's guide insisted that he should go to the British lines by land he was carrying compromising papers and wearing civilian dress when seized by an American party and held under close arrest Arnold meanwhile ignorant of this delay was waiting for the expected advance up the river of the British fleet he learned of the arrest of Andre well at breakfast on the morning of the 25th waiting to be joined by Washington who had just ridden in from Hartford Arnold received the startling news with extraordinary composure finished the subject under discussion and then left the table under pretext of a summons from across the river within a few minutes his barge was moving swiftly to the vulture 18 miles away thus Arnold escaped the unhappy Andre was hanged as a spy on the 2nd of October he met his fate bravely Washington it is said shed tears under military law 40 years later the bones of Andre were reburied in Westminster Abbey a tribute of pity for a fine officer the treason of Arnold is not in itself important yet Washington wrote with deep conviction that providence had directly intervened to save the American cause Arnold might be only one of many Washington said indeed that it was a wonder there were not more in a civil war every one of importance is likely to have ties with both sides he regrets for the friends his loss misgivings and respect to the course he has adopted in April 1779 Arnold had begun his treason by expressing discontent that the alliance with France then working so disastrously his future lay before him he was still under 40 he had just married into a family of position he expected that both he and his descendants would spend their lives in America and he must have known that contempt would follow them for the conduct which he planned if it were regarded by public opinion as base voices in Congress too had denounced the alliance with France as alliance with tyranny political and religious members praised the liberties of England and had declared that the Declaration of Independence must be revoked and that now it could be done with honor since the Americans have proved their mettle there was room for fear that the morale of the Americans was giving way the defection of Arnold might also have military results he'd bargained to be made a general in the British army and he had intimate knowledge of the weak points in Washington's position he advised the British that if they would do two things offer generous terms to soldiers serving in the American army and concentrate their effort they could win the war with a cynical knowledge of the weaker side of human nature he declared that it was too expensive a business to bring men from England to serve in America they could be secured more cheaply in America it would be necessary only to pay them better than Washington could pay his army as matters stood the continental troops in years after the close of the war and grants of land ranging from 100 acres for a private to 1100 acres for a general make better offers than this urged Arnold money will go farther than arms in America if the British would concentrate on the Hudson where the defenses were weak they could drive a wedge between North and South if on the other hand they preferred to concentrate in the South leaving only a garrison in New York they could overrun Virginia and Maryland and then the states farther south would give up a fight in which they were already beaten energy and enterprise said Arnold will quickly win the war in the autumn of 1780 the British cause did indeed seem near triumph an election in England in October gave the ministry an increased majority and with this renewed determination when Holland long a secret enemy became an open one in December 1780 Admiral Rodney descended on the Dutch island of St. Eustaceus in the West Indies where the Americans were in the habit of buying great quantities of stores and on the 3rd of February 1781 captured the place with 200 merchant ships half a dozen men of war and stores to the value of three million pounds the capture cut off one chief source of supply to the United States by January 1781 a crisis in respect to money came to her head fierce mutinies broke out because there was no money to provide food clothing or pay for the army and the men were in a destitute condition these people are at the end of their resources wrote Rochamba in March Arnold's treason voices in Congress the disasters in the south the British success in cutting off supplies of stores from St. Eustaceus the sordid problem of money all these were well-fitted to depress the warned leader so anxiously watching on the Hudson it was the dark hour before the dawn end of chapter 10